Variability of soil hydraulic properties and estimation of plant-available water on claypan-soil landscapes

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pingping Jiang
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. eaau6635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua S. Caplan ◽  
Daniel Giménez ◽  
Daniel R. Hirmas ◽  
Nathaniel A. Brunsell ◽  
John M. Blair ◽  
...  

Soil hydraulic properties influence the partitioning of rainfall into infiltration versus runoff, determine plant-available water, and constrain evapotranspiration. Although rapid changes in soil hydraulic properties from direct human disturbance are well documented, climate change may also induce such shifts on decadal time scales. Using soils from a 25-year precipitation manipulation experiment, we found that a 35% increase in water inputs substantially reduced infiltration rates and modestly increased water retention. We posit that these shifts were catalyzed by greater pore blockage by plant roots and reduced shrink-swell cycles. Given that precipitation regimes are expected to change at accelerating rates globally, shifts in soil structure could occur over broad regions more rapidly than expected and thus alter water storage and movement in numerous terrestrial ecosystems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abraha ◽  
Tesfamariam ◽  
Truter

Soil compaction impedes plant growth by negatively affecting water infiltration, soil aeration, access to soil water and nutrients, and consequently restricts root development. Previous studies to alleviate such problems in rehabilitated mine soils using a single amendment material did not provide a long lasting solution. The aim of the study was to quantify the role of different amendments in alleviating selected soil hydraulic properties. Five single amendment materials and three different blends of amendments were mixed thoroughly with degraded mine soil in a 1:3 (amendment:soil) ratio and packed in columns. Two additional unamended soils with different bulk densities were included as benchmarks. In general, the application of amendments reduced bulk density (BD) by 4–20%, enhanced infiltration rate by 15–70%, increased porosity by 5–35% and increased plant available water (PAW) by 9–33% compared with the unamended soils. Between amendments, the blends of amendments reduced BD by 9–16%, enhanced infiltration rate by 17–59%, increased porosity by 6–32%, and PAW by 4–28% compared with single amendments. The study showed that a blend of amendments have better soil restoration capacity through improving porosity, infiltration rate and plant available water. A blend of amendments therefore has the potential to be a sustainable and an important component of a rehabilitation strategy for surface coal mined soils.


2002 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. Young ◽  
A. Karagunduz ◽  
J. Šimůnek ◽  
K. D. Pennell

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1169
Author(s):  
Long Thanh Bui ◽  
Yasushi Mori

If soil hydraulic conductivity or water holding capacity could be measured with a small volume of samples, it would benefit international fields where researchers can only carry a limited amount of soils out of particular regions. We performed a pinhole multistep centrifuge outflow method on three types of soil, which included granite decomposed soil (Masa soil), volcanic ash soil (Andisol soil), and alluvial clayey soil (paddy soil). The experiment was conducted using 2 mL and 15 mL centrifuge tubes in which pinholes were created on the top and bottom for air intrusion and outflow, respectively. Water content was measured at 5, 15, and 30 min after applying the centrifuge to examine the equilibrium time. The results showed that pinhole drainage worked well for outflow, and 15 or 30 min was sufficient to obtain data for each step. Compared with equilibrium data, the retention curve was successfully optimized. Although the curve shape was similar, unsaturated hydraulic conductivities deviated largely, which implied that Ks caused convergence issues. When Ks was set as a measured constant, the unsaturated hydraulic properties converged well and gave excellent results. This method can provide soil hydraulic properties of regions where soil sampling is limited and lacks soil data.


2021 ◽  
Vol 593 ◽  
pp. 125890
Author(s):  
Xiaoxian Zhang ◽  
Andrew L. Neal ◽  
John W. Crawford ◽  
Aurelie Bacq-Labreuil ◽  
Elsy Akkari ◽  
...  

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